Last night was a riot. The older ones had gone to mutual and I had the precious ones. I love motivating my kiddos with food: the little ones quickly polished off their plates so they could have a cup of ice cream stuffed full. I have come to acknowledge the sacred place that ice cream holds in our family: yesterday I spent almost $70 on just ice cream for our freezer, in different forms and flavors. I must be my grandfather Kendrick’s progeny: If there is no ice cream in the house, there is a famine in the land. We did get some nasty lactose free stuff for Peanut, Pleh-Pleh (a nickname Quinn is trying to banish), Nellie, Penny, Sweet Pea…Penelope. She was in heaven, though, being able to enjoy the feast with only minimal discomfort that night.
Elijah happily dished people up for me so I could start making headway on the week’s worth of laundry that had piled up in our laundry room. It was so bad last night Piper told me that she couldn’t get to the garbage on the countertop in that room because of the mountain of laundry in front of it. True thing. It doesn’t help that I have been going to a “live in your pee” method for Elijah with potty training…poor chap. No more pull-ups. The guy has been dealt an unfortunate genetic card–one full of emotions, sensitivity and weak bladder issues. We’ve been able to keep it pretty low-key with minimal negativity. Just clean it up in the morning. Try to get up with him at night when I am already up.
Anyway, Xai started reading to the kiddos after they brushed their teeth. I love hearing them giggle as he reads to them. We have some seriously hilarious books. We bought the entire Elephant and Piggie series for Christmas and I think that is hands down the most used present in our house. Cha-ching! Of course, the laughs would occasionally turn to outrage as Penelope would interlope and turn reading time into some kind of brawl. I managed to convince her that it was more fun to “fold” laundry, taking one for the team.
Penelope is surprisingly great at knowing whose clothes are whose. She also put a bunch of rags in the rag basket where they needed to go. And she’s deliciously adorable. Aside from that, her help was more in the realm of minimal damage, but with all my years of experience, the folded piles grew faster than she dissembled the pile. It took a lot of diversion. At one point, she happily ensconced herself in the basket, all cozy and cute. But it was fun! (Now go back and read that italicized portion again and think “Matt Meese” voice from the fortune telling. Okay. Now we’re on the same page….moving on.)
I decided to call it “good enough” (laundry never ends) when I heard Xai wrapping up a book. My turn! I love having Elijah and Liesl snuggled up beside me at least for a few books each night. Sure I use Granny MacDuff when I need to, but my favorite is being the story teller. There’s something magical about that moment in the day. We always say prayers after–me saying one first for each of them and then one with them individually–then a hug, hug, kiss, kiss for Liesl and a nice squishy one for Elijah. The joy and peace in their bright blue, chocolate brown eyes is one of my favorite things right now.
I tried watching the part of “The Glass Onion” (VidAngeled–so about half the dialogue) that I missed the night of Quinn’s birthday when I went to sleep with Penelope, but only got about 20 minutes into it. I was trying to glue some shoe bottoms back on and Penelope–aforementioned questionable but adorable helper–decided that she needed a drink. She was pretty independent. She found herself a cup from the drawer and dragged the ⅔ full orange juice jug over to me. I unfortunately had my hands full of quickly drying intense glue, dismantling shoes and rubber bands–trying to listen to a turned down, edited video–when she came up to me loudly saying “please, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!” gradually louder and louder. Well, I wasn’t super patient and even that slight elevated emotion set her off, little dear. I quickly calmed down, did the truly simple thing of getting her a drink and settled back again for another five minutes before the gang came home. (I’ll finish it later, lol. Maybe.)
I turned off the movie because it was distracting Maia. A quick dinner help from Hyrum, Piper, Hava and Maia straightened up the kitchen the rest of the way. Normally we do a type of dinner-time quiz. Tonight, it was first-come, first-serve. Hyrum drew the final straw in the lottery–a “punishment” for him taking care of animals outside ironically, but when he found out he had been left the 3.2 dishes in the sink for his job, he was pleasantly surprised.
Piper and I had an emotional/feisty interaction that we were able to resolve this morning, gratefully. I know we can just move on, but I am so grateful when people let me resolve things with them, even if we don’t share the same conclusion. I was pretty done with being a parent at that point.
Penelope happily followed me into my bedroom, knowing books, a binki, and her blanket were waiting in her little corner “crib” we made out of two benches, the two walls, a book shelf and a crib mattress next to our bed. This way she technically sleeps with us but doesn’t.
(Our queen is a little snug for two adults and a cross-wise, head-ramming baby. She has a basket of books that she cycles through, sometimes “reading” out loud. She reached over and tapped on my tummy for “Dum Ditty Dum Ditty Dum Dum Dum” from “Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb” and barked with each page for the “Doggie” Sandra Boynton book…until she got to the howling page, which she did on cue. So cute! I addressed all the messages, posts and texts I had faithfully ignored the last half of the day in the joyful chaos of:
playing almost 2 hours of Among Us with Tova for her birthday, walking the baby and dog to the neighbors’ houses with two dozen eggs to share and coming back with four pounds of ground beef from a local cow (not loco cow, fortunately), and then whipping together a late but delicious dinner of elbow stew and veggies.
I was excited to get to bed not only to rest but also because Quinn and I are reading a book called “The Inheritance Games” which is a fun inheritance puzzle/mystery type book. Kind of a combo between “Knives Out” and “Chasing Vermeer.” He reads aloud and I try to stay awake until we get to a stopping point. Fortunately this book is very engaging so I managed to stay awake until 1.2 minutes after he reached the end of the chapter.
